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Other Views: Putin's contradictory words

Putin’s contradictory words

A couple of conclusions can be drawn from the welter of contradictory statements and actions on Ukraine by Russian President Vladi­mir Putin over the past several days.

One is Mr. Putin has no compunction about making demonstrably false statements. On Wednesday, he said he had withdrawn Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s border, but on Friday NATO’s secretary general confirmed no such movement had been detected.

Another lesson is, contrary to the defeatist assessments sometimes heard in Washington, Mr. Putin can be moved by sanctions.

The Russian ruler’s sudden concession Ukraine’s planned May 25 elections — which his spokesman called “absurd” — could be “a step in the right direction” can be understood only in the context of a threat by President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to impose punishing “sectoral” sanctions on Russia if it disrupted the vote.

It was no accident Mr. Putin spoke up even as a U.S. delegation was holding talks in Europe on the details of those sanctions.

Mr. Putin’s statements and his seeming openness to mediation by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe are of a piece with his agreement three weeks ago to a “de-escalation” plan for Ukraine — following which Russia “fulfilled none of its commitments,” as Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told Congress on Thursday. If he can deflect threatened sanctions or sow dissension among Western governments with words, Mr. Putin will do so.